“Hello, Minister!” bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. “Did I mention I’m resigning?”
“You’re joking, Perce!” shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.
“You actually are joking, Perce. . . . I don’t think I’ve heard you joke since you were —”
The air exploded.
Fred was dead. His eyes glassy, the ghost of his last laugh still etched on his face.
Percy shot up from bed. It was that nightmare. That same nightmare. He had been having it for years, since the twins started school. He didn’t know why. It was a horrible thing to dream of, his younger brother’s death, no matter how much he resented him.
He could only hope it wouldn’t come true.
~
“Hello, Minister!” bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. “Did I mention I’m resigning?”
“You’re joking, Perce!” shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.
“You actually are joking, Perce. . . . I don’t think I’ve heard you joke since you were —”
The air exploded.
Fred was dead. His eyes glassy, the ghost of his last laugh still etched on his face.
Percy shot up once more, rubbing his eyes as they adjusted to his bright room. Odd, his room was never bright.
He turned and realised that there was a Patronus next to him. Abeforth’s Patronus.
“Harry is back at Hogwarts. They are going to fight. You-Know-Who is going to fight. Your family is there.”
The silver animal whispered, before vanishing.
Percy grabbed his wand, changed, and headed out.
~
There was blood everywhere. Bodies crumpled on the ground, sections of the walls collapsed under numerous spells. Hogwarts, after having withstood a thousand years of attacks, had fallen. But there was still hope, Percy thought, Harry was still alive.
He was fighting some Death Eaters. They duelled, spells flying everywhere, some hit their mark, some where dodged, some hit unfortunate people who were running by.
Soon, Percy was joined by Fred, and they duelled like never before. They knew where to hit, where to defend, they were in sync for they first time in many years.
Percy knocked the mask off one of the Death Eaters.
“Hello, Minister!” bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. “Did I mention I’m resigning?”
No, why this moment? Was it a warning?
“You’re joking, Perce!” shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.
No, Percy cried, he couldn’t, he couldn’t let Fred die. Not like in his nightmares. He couldn’t do that to George, to Mum, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Ron, Ginny. He couldn’t let them cry over Fred. Not now, not ever.
“You actually are joking, Perce. . . . I don’t think I’ve heard you joke since you were —”
Percy ran forward and pushed Fred away from the wall, the wall that would collapse on him in a few seconds.
“Oi! Perce—”
The air exploded.
The wall crumbled and Fred fell on the ground, disgruntled but alive. Then he realised. Percy.
“Percy! Hey!” He found his older brother’s body quickly, shaking him to get a response.
Ron and harry were by his side, checking for any signs of life. Percy groaned slightly, and hope flared in their hearts.
“Had….to…..save…..you…..couldn’t…..hurt……you….again…..” Percy whispered, smiling softly for the last time as the light faded from his eyes, permanently.
“No! Percy! No! Wake up! Please, Percy….” Fred sobbed. His brother had died to save him, but how had he know?
One thing Fred did know, was that he was going to avenge Percy.
~
“Fred! Where’s Percy?” Their mother asked during the grace period Voldemort had given them.
Fred only stared silently at one part of the hall, where the dead lay peacefully.
Molly gasped as she took off to over there, her family following suit.
They found Percy quickly, due to his signature Weasley hair.
He lay on the ground in a neat row, perfectly aligned with other bodies. It was how Percy would have wanted it, Fred realises, neat and orderly, not a person out of place.
Molly wept as she fell over her son’s body, sobbing that she had pushed him away, and now it was too late.
Arthur mourned the son he had raised, pushed away and lost. Why hadn’t he kept his mouth shut a little while longer? Congratulate Percy on getting his position? Why couldn’t he have taken Percy aside and inform him calmly about his suspicions? He had ruined the already strained relationship he had had with his third son, and now, there was no chance of ever fixing it.
Bill and Charlie stared at the dead body of their younger, whose face was graced with a serene smile, almost as if he was asleep, dreaming of something nice rather than dead. Their younger brother was gone. Just like that. They never got to say goodbye, never got to make amends. He died with them having a broken relationship, and now, in death, they had no hope he could ever fix it.
The twins looked on at the body of their brother. A brother they had teased mercilessly for years, tormented and harassed, until he had snapped. He had left them, saying he was ashamed to be related to them. It was their fault he was like this. If they hadn’t hurt him so much, if they hadn’t made him resent them so, would he have stayed with the family? Would he still be alive? They didn’t know the answer, unlike normally.
Ron felt tears form in his eyes as he stared at the brother he had made fun of and talked bad about to Harry. He felt ashamed of himself. How could he have done that to his brother, when all his brother ever did when he was young was take care of him? Making sure he was happy, even at the expense of his own, that was what Percy did. And he repaid him how? By being one of the people who constantly teased and made fun of him. How could he ever live with himself?
Ginny broke down in tears, yet not a sound came out. She mourned the older brother who had always made time to play with her as a child. The brother who wrote a story of her being a pretty princess for her, and read it to her every night when she was way younger. Where had it all gone so wrong? She had thrown away that book, in a fit of anger at Percy for leaving, and now, like Percy, she could never have that book back, ever again.
Hermione and Harry stood silently at the side, letting the family mourn their lost son, their lost brother. They didn’t know what to feel. They hadn’t known him well enough to be as upset as the Weasleys. But looking back, both realised that under all that pompous talk and uprightness, Percy was a person who cared for his siblings. He had denied that Voldemort was back only because he knew his siblings and parents would fight for Harry, for Dumbledore. He didn’t want them in danger. He didn’t want them to die, like he had now. And Harry and Hermione had blamed him for being an asshole, never taking the chance to really know him, to understand him, and now it was too late.
~
Oliver ran through the crowd. Where was Perce? He had promised to come to him, so where was he?
He spotted a family of red heads and huddled over at one part of the hall, and he ran over. As he was about to say something to them, he noticed they were huddled around a body. Oh no.
He peered at the body, and his heart dropped. Percy.
“No….” He whispered, not caring if anyone heard him.
Tears fell rapidly, as he fell to his knees, mourning the boy he had loved and lost. He and Percy understood each other the most. They were roommates, the only two male Gryffindors of their year. They understood the other’s obsessions with their specific things, never judged. They loved each other like crazy. Yet he was gone. The one person Oliver had ever loved more than a friend, more than family, lay before him, resting peacefully.
No one understood more than him.
~
Percy had spent half his life plagued with nightmares of the death of a brother. They were warnings, reminders, forewarnings of what was to come if he didn’t act.
He had spent his life having nightmares. Now, finally the nightmare was over, and now he sleeps peacefully, dreaming of heaven above, where he meets all those who were lost before him. The world was only ever full of nightmares and dreams, after all.